Question

I’m coding a site that makes heavy use of AJAX to load pages for users with JavaScript, but I also want it to be friendly for users with JavaScript disabled or unavailable. I’ve covered all the basics; for example, all my links point to canonical links, and JavaScript loads them via AJAX. My “about” page, therefore, is located at /about/, but will load on the main page and will, once finished, utilize hash/hashbang links to enable back-button functionality.

Here’s the problem I have: while a hash/hashbang link will be able to be used to link to a specific page via AJAX for users with JavaScript, if a user with JavaScript attempts to link someone without it to the page, the page cannot be loaded for that person using AJAX.

As such, I’d like to be able, if possible, to use .htaccess to redirect hash/hashbang-specified pages to the canonical link. In other words, the exact opposite of what this contributer was trying to achieve.

http://example.com/#!about –> http://example.com/about/

Is it possible with .htaccess, or otherwise without JavaScript? If so, how?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I don’t think it’s possible to do this on server side. Because the part of the url after # is not included in the request sent to the server.